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Phil Mickelson on how captain's decision can lead to Ryder Cup failure

Steve DiMeglio
USA TODAY Sports

CHASKA, Minn. — Phil Mickelson said the American team has been put in position to succeed this week in the Ryder Cup.

Phil Mickelson plays his shot from the sixth tee during a practice for the 41st Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club on Sept. 27.

In 2004, he said he was put “in a position to fail” by U.S. captain Hal Sutton.

Mickelson, who criticized captain Tom Watson’s handling of the team in 2014 when the U.S. lost by five points, once again raised eyebrows when he spoke to the importance of a captain during a news conference on Wednesday.

And he didn’t mince words when he brought up the ill-fated pairing of himself and Tiger Woods in the first session of the 2004 Ryder Cup.

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“It all starts with the captain,” is how Mickelson started. “I mean, that's the guy that has to bring together 12 strong individuals and bring out their best and allow them on a platform to play their best. That's the whole foundation of the team. I hear, ‘Well, guys just need to play better’ or ‘They just need to putt better.’ Absolutely you do.

“But you play how you prepare.”

Then Mickelson gave an example of how not to prepare.

Two days before the 2004 match, Sutton announced he was pairing Woods and Mickelson, the world’s No. 1-2, respectively, on the first day. The duo first lost to Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington, 2 and 1, and then lost to Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, 1 up. The losses set the table for an 18 1/2 -9 1/2 loss by the Americans.

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“That gave us no time to work together and prepare,” Mickelson said of the late notice. The main problem was the golf ball. Woods played a high-spin ball, while Mickelson played a low-spin ball.

“So I grabbed a couple dozen of his balls, I went off to the side, and tried to learn his golf ball in a four- or five-hour session … trying to find out how far the ball goes,” Mickelson said. “And it forced me to stop my preparation for the tournament, to stop chipping and stop putting and stop sharpening my game and stop learning the golf course, in an effort to crash-course and learn a whole different golf ball that we were going to be playing.

“And in the history of my career, I have never ball-tested two days prior to a major. I've never done it. It doesn't allow me to play my best. Had we known a month in advance, we might have been able to make it work. I think we probably would have made it work. But we didn't know until two days prior.”

Mickelson said he wasn’t trying to knock anybody, saying he loved how decisive Sutton was.

“But that's an example of starting with the captain, that put us in a position to fail and we failed monumentally, absolutely,” he said. “But to say, well, you just need to play better; that is so misinformed because you will play how you prepare.”

Mickelson said that won’t be a problem this year. He was one of 11 players on the Ryder Cup Task Force formed in 2014 to talk all things Ryder Cup and develop a plan going forward. While the task force was disbanded, Mickelson remains on the Ryder Cup Committee that will identify future captains and consultants on all things Ryder Cup.

He said the leadership of captain Davis Love III for this week’s Ryder Cup has been superb, and the plan, which allows input from players, assistant captains, PGA of America officials and even captains has worked. This is in stark contrast, Mickelson said, to how Watson handled the team in 2014, when Mickelson said no player was asked for any input.

“This is a year where we feel as though Captain Love has been putting us in a position to succeed,” Mickelson said. “He's taken input from all parties. He's making decisions that have allowed us to prepare our best and play our best, and I believe that we will play our best. Now we are playing a very strong European team and I don't know what that means results-wise, but our best golf will come out this week and that's our goal.”

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